


Vampire to the rescue

by mckvch (RaiseYourVoice)



Series: Saphael Winter Tales [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Bane Chronicles - Sarah Rees Brennan & Cassandra Clare & Maureen Johnson, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Clan Leader Raphael Santiago, First Meetings, Human Simon, M/M, Mugging, Pre-Relationship, Raphael to the rescue, Vampire Raphael, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-02 22:24:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8685637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaiseYourVoice/pseuds/mckvch
Summary: A mild commotion in a street up ahead drew his attention and at first, he assumed some drunk teens had decided to pick a fight but his sensitive hearing recognised one of the voices pleading for the other's to stop and quivering with every word, clearly distressed and scared. Raphael usually didn't care much about what the mundanes were up to but this time his feet led him right towards the noise and rounding a corner he spotted three rather bulky teenagers pestering a fourth one who had his back pressed against the wall, glasses slightly askew on his nose and a panicked look on his face."What do you think you're doing?!" Raphael raised his voice without a second thought and stepped closer when every pair of eyes turned to look at him. The guy who was bullied looked surprised, thankful but now even more scared - probably scared for Raphael, the vampire realised with some amusement - while the three guys actually started laughing after a beat of stunned silence.





	

The thing that Raphael liked about winter? It was dark so early that he was able to leave the Hotel Dumort at a time when people were still milling around in the streets, doing some shopping or heading home from work. The cold didn't bother him because as a vampire, being undead and all, he didn't feel the low temperatures. He had been a vampire for several decades now but he always anticipated winter and feeling closer to his lost mundane life by walking amongst the living at a more or less decent time.

This evening in December was one of the days when he wanted to feel a little bit closer to the living and he left the hotel as soon as possible to go for a long walk. He had finished all his necessary responsibilities as a clan leader the night before to have this one all to himself and put Lily in charge for half of the night, just in case anything happened.

Walking through the streets, the fresh snow crunching under his boots with every step, Raphael couldn't help but take a few unnecessary breaths and fill his dead lungs with crisp winter air. It was weird to think that his body once depended on this simple gesture and had done it without thinking and by now he had already gotten rid of this habit, barely ever took a useless breath without actively deciding to do so.

A mild commotion in a street up ahead drew his attention and at first, he assumed some drunk teens had decided to pick a fight but his sensitive hearing recognised one of the voices pleading for the other's to stop and quivering with every word, clearly distressed and scared. Raphael usually didn't care much about what the mundanes were up to but this time his feet led him right towards the noise and rounding a corner he spotted three rather bulky teenagers pestering a fourth one who had his back pressed against the wall, glasses slightly askew on his nose and a panicked look on his face.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Raphael raised his voice without a second thought and stepped closer when every pair of eyes turned to look at him. The guy who was bullied looked surprised, thankful but now even more scared - probably scared _for_ Raphael, the vampire realised with some amusement - while the three guys actually started laughing after a beat of stunned silence.

"You better keep walking, shorty," one of them bellowed and the other two laughed even more.

Raphael sighed, annoyed that he had to intervene and probably hurt at least one of them to get them to leave. It was an inconvenience, disturbing his relaxed and thoughtful walk but he had decided to help this mundane and he wouldn't back off because he just didn't feel like helping after all.

"How about you piss off and harass someone else?" Raphael said, audibly annoyed and unimpressed by this one guy who dared to step up to him, close enough that the clan leader could reach out, grab his collar and fling him to the other side of the road. Of course, he didn't give in to the urge to do just that. He preferred not giving away his true nature to some stupid mundanes.

"What do you want to do about it if we don't, huh?" The guy in front of him asked, clearly daring him to act. The only thing Raphael did was attempt to walk around the annoyingly stupid guy and when the guy was the one to reach out and almost grab his collar, Raphael's hand shot out and his cold fingers curled around the teenager's wrist.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Keep your filthy fingers off my coat!" The clan leader almost hissed and his brown eyes darkened, looking almost black now, glaring up at the slightly taller male. He knew the boy was tempted to laugh again but didn't when Raphael's fingers pressed harder against his skin, feeling the bones protest under his grip and the teenager gave a cry of pain, tried unsuccessfully to free himself of the vampire's grip.

"I will let you go, if you take your dumb friends and fuck off," Raphael growled, low enough so only this boy was able to hear him and when the guy nodded, clearly in pain, he let go and the corners of his mouth curled into a slow grin when it took only half a minute for the guy to convince his friends to get out of here.

"T-thank you," the boy who had been harassed stammered and stared at him with wide eyes, awed. Raphael was about to just leave but he noticed the boy clutching his chest and frowned.

"Did they hurt you?" He heard himself ask and was surprised that he actually meant the question, that he felt a mild concern about this stranger's well-being.

"No. They...they just stole my money...Well, not mine but...they stole it," the boy muttered and dropped his hands so Raphael could see that he wasn't actually clutching his chest but pressing something _to_ his chest. It was one of these large wallets that consisted of one pocket and were closed with a zipper.

"Whose money was it?"

"It was...I collected it. For the children's home. And I was just on my way to hand it in but they only left me with 20 dollars," the boy sighed and his shoulders slumped. He was clearly distressed and for a good reason.

"How much did they take?" Raphael finally asked and stepped closer to the teenager who was maybe two years older than the clan leader had been back when he was turned.

"I had almost 100. I know, that's not too much more either but at least it was something and might have made more of a difference for the kids than 20 dollars could achieve."

Raphael hummed in understanding before reaching for his own wallet to pull out a few bank notes and hand them to the boy without hesitation. He had already lived for decades and vampires had perfected their ways of cultivating quite a bit of money. Raphael himself had grown up pretty poor himself but ever since becoming a vampire he had managed to save up a quite great sum of money. A few hundred dollars less didn't harm him in the least.

"I can't take your money! How much is this even?"

"600 dollars and believe me I'm--my family is pretty wealthy and won't even notice," Raphael replied with a hopefully reassuring smile and then ended up grabbing the wallet from the boy to put the notes inside himself.

"I can't accept this. Seriously, this is an insane amount of money and I don't even know your name."

"My name is Raphael. Raphael Santiago."

"O-okay, Raphael. Nice to meet you and thank you for your help but I still can't--"

"And what's _your_ name?"

"Simon," the boy answered sheepishly and was clearly about to say sorry about his lack of manners as well but Raphael interrupted him with a surprisingly genuine smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Nice to meet you, Simon. How about I keep you company until you reach the children's home? To make sure the money won't get stolen again," he offered and for some reason, the clan leader felt like talking to the boy a little longer. He was more than pleased when Simon blinked in confusion but nodded anyway, his own lips curling into a tentative little smile as well.

This was an unexpected but not entirely unwelcome turn of events and somehow Raphael spent the rest of the night with his thoughts revolving around a dark haired boy with a smile that lit up the dark and words tumbling from his mouth so fast that even his own tongue sometimes couldn't keep up.


End file.
